Internet Explorer Catches Up

Sometime next year, Internet Explorer will catch up to every other
modern web browser by providing a built-in pop-up blocker. Whether the
feature will be turned on by default is up in the air at the moment.
Microsoft is waiting for feedback from users before making that
decision.

Allow me to summarize every single comment Microsoft will receive on
this from users. "Hell yes, ship it with the blocker turned on."

Now, let me summarize every single comment Microsoft will receive from advertising companies. "Hell no, are you crazy?"

"If they turn it on by default, that would effectively kill pop-up
advertising on the Web," said Nate Elliott, an associate analyst with
Jupiter Research.

Awwwww.... I'm heart-broken.

I suspect the people who make heavy use of pop-up and pop-under ads
will move on to use the new "Slider" ads that have been popping up
(pardon the pun) all over the place. These are javascripts or maybe
DHTML that "slide" what looks like small pop-ups across the window and
park themselves directly in front of the page until you close them. These
slider ads are even more annoying than pop-ups.

I love Mozilla and Opera,
both of which have long since blocked all unwanted pop-up windows.
However, neither of them block these new slider ads. I sincerely hope
the
developers for both browsers start looking into ways to kill those
(hint, hint).

Before you praise Microsoft too loudly for their decision to block
pop-ups, you need to understand that this is a bit self-serving. The
update will be provided in Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. There
likely will be no such update for Internet Explorer 6 running on other
platforms. Those of you running Windows 2000, ME (shudder), NT, or 98
may be shut out of this new feature. This would be perfectly in
line with Microsoft's consumer-hostile attitude.

I read every news article about this and all of them mentioned that
the update would be XP SP2. None of them mentioned an update for IE6
separate from XP. If anyone happens to know for sure, please let me know.

Everything you do on your computer leaves a trail behind. When you
surf to a web site, you leave behind internet cache, address bar
history, web site visit history, and cookies. When you open a document,
Windows saves the filename into the registry. When you run certain
programs, Windows saves a file into a temporary folder, and often
doesn't delete it afterward.

Evidence Terminator optionally cleans all of the following:

Recycle bins on every drive in your system. Internet history logs
stored on your hard
drive. Internet cookies. Temporary Internet Files (caches and other
media files). Temporary program files. Recent documents list. Backup
files. LOG files. CD burner software temp files. Program temp files not
in the system temp
folder. Those evil index.dat files no matter how
many of them you have. Overwrites files to help prevent recovery. The
drop down URL list from IE. The run list, find computers list, and
recently searched file list.

Please note that this is Evidence Terminator and not Evidence Eliminator, which never would be featured here. Read why not.

Evidence Terminator is made by the authors of Spycop anti-spyware
software. Spycop is an excellent program for detecting and removing
surveillance spyware such as Spectorsoft, iSpynow, WinWhatWhere and
others. It is considered by some to have the largest database of
surveillance spyware on the market.

Every week, SpywareInfo offers solid software at a discount. You
save money on expensive software, and we avoid having to run
DoubleClick banners and pop ups to pay for hosting.

If you have a suggestion for software that we could feature here, or
if you are a developer that would like to see your product here, drop us a line. Submissions will have to be reviewed beforehand and we will do this promptly.

More Fuzzy Math

The case for open source software to run electronic voting machines grows ever stronger.

We have all of the funny business with Diebold, including software
tampering and faked demonstrations. There is also the matter of
Diebold's Republican CEO promising that he is "committed to helping
Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

Now there has been a major blunder by an electronic voting technology using closed-source software. MicroVote
voting machines reported 144,000 ballots cast during the recent
elections in Boone County, Indiana. Since only 5,300 people actually
voted, this would seem to be a problem.

It's a simple concept; it's easy to understand; and I don't know why
people are fighting it. If the software is going to decide the fate of
an election and, by extension, the fate of the world, then the software
running it needs to be open source.

Open source software can be examined by anyone interested in doing
so. Bugs and security flaws can be discovered by anyone with the
necessary programming skills. It also would make it next to impossible
to tamper with the results.

Right now most electronic voting machines in the USA use closed
source software, usually Microsoft Windows. We have to trust that the
makers of these machines do not tamper with them to skew an election or
cover up nasty security problems.

I don't know about you, but I don't trust any of these companies
that far. I certainly do not trust Diebold and can't imagine anyone who
would. The dilemma of whether or not my one vote matters is bad enough.
To suspect that my one vote is not even counted accurately infuriates
me.

The Weekly Outrage

I have decided to dedicate one section per newsletter to highlight
an injustice. It won't necessarily have anything to do with spyware,
privacy or even technology. All that's necessary is that it ticks me
off.

I usually have at least one off-topic rant per newsletter anyway, so
this is just to make it official. Last week, it was my rant about Apple iTunes and the RIAA.

So, without further ado...

Get Rid of Your Dog or Lose Your Insurance

Virginia homeowner Steve Wells received a nasty shock in the mail
recently. His insurance company, Augusta Mutual Insurance Company, has
informed him that they are going to cancel his homeowners insurance
because they don't like his dog.

Like many insurance companies, Augusta Mutual refuses to cover homes in which certain
breeds of dog are present. This practice, based on the misperception
that certain large dogs are inherently dangerous, is illegal in two
states and is being examined in others.

Wells had to file a claim recently because of damage caused by the recent hurricane Isabelle. When the claims adjuster from T. M. Everette Claim Service
showed up to inspect the damage, Wells was at work and his dog was in
the backyard. On the forms he filled out while inspecting the damage to
the house, the inspector wrote the words "CAUTION-PIT BULL IN BACK
YARD".

Wells' insurance company stated that they will cancel his insurance
for owning a Pit Bull and for "misrepresenting this fact" when he
purchased his insurance. However, there is a very big problem with
this. You see, Steve Wells doesn't own a Pit Bull and he never has.

About The Spyware Weekly

Although I already have said everything that I am about to say at
one point or another in the past, most of you are fairly new readers. As
I write this, there are almost exactly 9,900 subscribers to this
newsletter. God only knows how many people read it online without
subscribing. I
broke my stats program (oops) and have no idea how many hits the site
receives until I reinstall it on the new server.

There were over 15,000 visitors per day last September when the
program still worked. To judge from the bandwidth use, it must be
nearly twice that by now.

This newsletter started out as a way for me to pay for running the
web site. I didn't want ads on the main site (and I still don't), so I
decided I would have an advertising-sponsored newsletter. That worked
imperfectly and I still ended up having to use ads on the main site,
but at least they are controlled by me, not someone like Doubleclick
who would track my visitors all over the web.

One of these days, I will get off my butt and update the "official"
description of what this newsletter is. In spite of its name, this
newsletter is not about spyware. If the only subject I wrote about was
spyware, this would be a very boring newsletter.

I write about anything that effects our rights. Most of what I write
about has to do with privacy and spyware. I write about intrusive
marketing tactics such as pop-up ads, spam and the Belkin router spam last week.

I write about companies that do things which take away control from the
computer user. That includes such things as the auto-updater in the Google Toolbar that refuses to be turned off and the remote access trojan feature that Direcway (my ISP) includes in its satellite connection software.

I wrote about China
arresting the people who warned the world that their
communist overlords were covering up a fatal
pneumonic plague.

Basically, I write about anything that ticks me off or amuses me.
That usually will be something related to privacy, to our legal rights or
to technology. Sometimes it might be completely unrelated to any of
those (see the dog article above).

Occasionally I will receive an email griping that I've written
something completely off-topic. "What's that got to do with spyware?".
It takes a nice, large measure of self-control simply to delete the
email and not respond to it. I have an ugly temper and sometimes it
gets away from me.

I never expected that so many people would subscribe to this
newsletter. For a few months, I quit writing it. When I started it back
up, some moron forgot he had subscribed and reported me as a spammer.
It has grown ever since and now there are nearly 10,000 people who
receive this (and half of you have auto responders .... grrrrrrr).

I don't know how large the subscriber list will become. Chris Pirillo over at Lockergnome
swears that the email newsletter is dying and that everyone should
switch to RSS feeds. I agree that spammers and anti-spammers are doing
a fine job of killing email, but I think it can be saved eventually.

Whether I continue sending it out by email or stop that in favor of
RSS, I intend to keep writing my little rants as long as people keep
reading them. See you next week.

Any Starband Installers?

As I have mentioned many times, I will be dumping Direcway as
an ISP next month, when my contract with them expires. They abused my
trust by popping up ads on my computer until I took steps to block their access to it. I will not do business with them after that contract expires.

Since I live about halfway between Hoot and Holler, satellite and
dial-up are my only internet options. I refuse to use dial-up ever
again. Since Direcway has turned out to be scum, that means my only
real option is Starband. I'll be in touch with them this week
or next.

Are any of you contracted as Starband installers in the Southeast Georgia region (near Savannah and Vidalia)? If so, send me an email and maybe I can have them give you the installer contract.

Links:

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The privacy policy of the site looks solid and I did ask around if anyone had heard anything bad about it before I signed up for it. You can use their service to recommend SpywareInfo to someone you know at http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=881459

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